


Hero

by nuclearwinter



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 00:48:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17152163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuclearwinter/pseuds/nuclearwinter
Summary: A demon lord has taken up residence in a corner of the kingdom, so Dave takes up his sword and goes to do what's right.





	Hero

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Midnight_Disasters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnight_Disasters/gifts).



> Merry Christmas Alex!! I am your Stridercest secret Santa 2018 >;) I hope you enjoy!!
> 
> Humongous thanks to Dee and Katie for the pom poms and beta help <3

Stabbing lava monsters with a sword is not shaping up to be very productive. For one, Dave notes, as another one fails to stop swiping even as its head plops to the ground, they don’t seem mind losing body parts. Also—he steps back quickly, giving himself a second to blink sweat from his eyes—they’re  _ hot. _ Not sexy, no—god no. They’re vaguely human shaped piles of rock, and the heat coming from them has him sweating underneath his layers of padding and chain mail. He’s fucking glad he only took the visor helmet with the sick-ass red plume instead of the whole plate mail ensemble, or else he’d be melting like cream on apple pie.

…He’s not quite sure his sword isn’t about to start melting, come to think of it. Why did it have to be lava monsters? Well, at least they aren't intelligent. They're just sort of following him and grabbing mindlessly, no sense of strategy to their movements. 

The first one swipes again and he parries, turns away, foot breaking up the black patterns their feet have burnt into the rocky ground. There are no trees to block the dizzying view off the side of the mountain path. In fact, there's no plant life for miles around this mountain, hasn't been ever since… well. The reason he has to fight these ugly customers. The reason he is here at all. 

Dave spins again, and his ugly little entourage ambles around after him in a clump. He strikes, is sent bouncing back in a shower of sparks. Spins, strikes, breaks away, the black marks from their shambling feet sweeping into wider and wider circles, until—one last tight spin, and the entire group shamble themselves right off the edge of the mountain path.

Dave can't use the moment to breathe. Who knows when more will come? He sets off climbing instead, ignoring the way his sweat-damp clothes cling, heading for the imposing stone tower perched halfway up the slope. 

It's blocky, unnatural, like a strange ugly chimney.  _ Stay away,  _ it seems to say. Well, Dave has stayed away for five years, while the lands around the base of the mountain were pillaged and ruined, while rumours began to spread about a terrible demon lord at the center of it all, while the former crown prince has been missing and presumed dead. The people have been asking for a knight to vanquish the evil. He can't stay away any more.

At the base of the tower are more lava monsters, smouldering away on either side of the open arch entryway. But Dave knows how to defeat them now, and in no time at all they're sliding down the edge of the cliff, and he is racing inside the tower and ascending the formidable staircase he finds there, sword in hand.

He climbs, and climbs, and it feels as though the heat inside the tower only rises the higher he goes. Sweat soaks his back, and the inside of his helmet is steamy with his own hot breaths, but still he climbs. Until— 

“Got this far,” says the creature at the top of the stairs. "Wasn't sure a pampered thing like you would have it in ya." So it knows he's not a knight after all—know who he is under the stolen knight gear, even. Dave forces his breath to stay steady, and looks up at the rumoured demon lord. 

The thing is, Dave knew that the rumours were shit from the start. It hasn't got horns, or hellfire skin, or even fangs. Just as he had guessed, it looks human—perhaps the cheekbones are a little sharp, the amber eyes glow a little in the dark. But maybe they always did. He takes off his borrowed helmet, and for a second his face feels a little cooler, before the sweltering heat of the tower crowds him again.

It hurts, a little, that the creature's expression doesn’t even flicker. He hasn’t seen his brother in five years.

"Nice place you got here," he says, his voice coming out remarkably flat. The overheated hilt of his sword is slick under his palm, dangerously so, but he can't afford any sudden movements. "Not really as nice as home, though. Ventilation in here is shit, for one. Not quite sure why you've gone and traded down like this."

"You're just gonna ignore that I called you weak. Ain't like you." 

"Didn't think disappearing out of nowhere and leaving an entire kingdom in the lurch and then setting up shop as some evil mountain hermit wizard was like you, either, but here we are," he says, and okay yes he sounds bitter now. What had he expected to find here, after everything?

"Is it in the lurch? It's got you," says the creature that looks so much like his brother, the once crown prince—by now, the rightful king. 

"Well, it looks like I'm also joining your mountain hermit gig." Taking a massive gamble, Dave sits down on the stairs.

_ Now _ the creature's expression flickers. "No." 

"Didn't we have a deal? That we were gonna handle things together? Bro," Dave says, and now his voice is definitely not flat. Fuck. "Just tell me what's going on."

"I made a new deal," says Bro, and his voice is infuriatingly steady. "With the devil."

He opens a palm, and flames burst into life in mid air above it. 

"It  _ really  _ doesn't need to be any hotter in here."

"Then leave." Bro starts walking down the stairs, menace radiating from him. Yeah, his eyes definitely do glow now.

"What do you mean you made a deal with the devil?" Dave stays exactly where he is, despite the bullets he is sweating.

"Don't concern you. Get out." 

And then there's a burst of heat right by Dave's ear. He rolls sideways along the stair, leg shooting out to stop him tumbling down. "You wouldn't hurt me."

"You don't know what I would do."

And he's right. Dave very carefully sheaths his sword anyway. "I know you."

He has mourned. He has travelled. He has studied. He has planned. He has fled the weight of his birthright, crushing now that he must bear it alone, to be here right now. 

"You don't know shit."

"Then teach me," Dave pants, and has to roll forward to escape another fiery blast. They aren't hitting him, though. At close range like this it has to be on purpose. "You know I know you can't kill me. Even if it's just because you need me on the throne."

After the hike and the climb and the skirmishes outside, Dave is honestly beginning to feel ragged. He grasps the wall, heaving for breath. 

"Then you already know how to help me," says Bro, expression blank again. "Go back. Do your duty."

"I did," Dave says, thankful his legs obey him as he takes another step higher. "For five years I did."  _ Don't ask any more of me, _ he thinks, but bites it back. It's probably written all over his face anyway. 

He takes another step.

Bro doesn't move back, flames still flickering over his palm.

Dave takes another step. And another, and another, until he's face to face with his brother, looking slightly up into those firebrand eyes. 

"If you do it now, you won't miss…" he whispers, and raises a shaking hand to the front of his brother's robe, fists the fabric. It's warm, everything is so warm. 

"I'm not going back," is the reply he gets, voice close and familiar, and Dave has to close his eyes for a moment. 

"You can't hurt me, I swear," he pushes on. He catches Bro by the wrist, and the flames go out, dimming the hallway again. "See."

"Fuck you," says Bro, and there's an edge to his voice. Excitement and relief blooms in Dave's gut. 

"You can touch me," he blurts, and oh. This isn't how he wanted any of this to go. He didn't mean that. They're not children anymore.

But he won't back down now. There's too much at stake to fall back on airs, graces, pretension. He tugs Bro's hand, and the ease with which it comes only feeds the fuel of his daring. He pulls the hand to his own face. 

"See?" Dave repeats, thrilling at the touch of fever-warm skin. 

It's impossible to read Bro's eyes. They are no longer that warm honey hazel Dave remembers. One of the few differences there once were between them—his own are reddish brown. Despite that, and despite the five years of separation, Dave is sure he knows what he is thinking. He's cycling through the worst things he could possibly say, sharpening the best knife for the vulnerability Dave is showing.

He doesn't fucking care. He's ready for it when Bro says, "I'll do you one favor, give you what you want. And then you'll leave." 

It is indeed the worst thing Bro could have thrown in his face. Something he thought he'd hidden well enough, except for that one time. But he's had time to sift through it now.  _ You want it too, you liar, _ he doesn't say. Instead, he reaches up and pulls Bro's face down to his.

It's not the hay-sweet air and clumsy brush of lips from Dave's distant memory. Bro's mouth is hot, his tongue searing. Dave's shoulders hit the stone wall, and all he can do is grab at Bro's arms, shoulders, pull him closer. His chain mail clinks and jingles loudly, and he groans into Bro's mouth.

Bro breaks away, and his eyes flick up and down Dave's body in a way that makes his whole body flush even hotter. Whatever Bro sees, Dave finds himself being hauled up the last few steps and through a door. 

This must be Bro's quarters, Dave thinks, but he hasn't got time to remark on the decor before he's being pushed down onto a low sleeping platform strewn with rumpled pillows and blankets.  

Bro's hands go straight to the belt around the middle of Dave's chain mail, getting the buckle undone with rough tugs that nearly pull Dave's hips up off the bed. 

"You're so into this," Dave marvels. Probably shouldn't have said that out loud. 

But Bro doesn't stop to comment. He rucks the chain mail up Dave's body and over his head, letting it slither off the side of the bed and clunk to the floor. Dave tries to reach back, to figure out Bro's own robes, but he finds himself pinned instead as the rest of his clothes are dispatched of. 

"Fuck," Dave gasps, goosebumps rising on his sweaty bare skin. "You gotta—" 

"I don't gotta do shit," Bro says, suddenly, shifting back. Dave starts a little. Bro hasn't spoken since this began. For a moment he looks nearly alien, and Dave is all too aware of his nakedness… where the fuck did his sword land? And then Bro's mouth quirks into a thrillingly familiar grin. "Not unless you beg me."

Oh no. He'd heard that from his big brother so many times over the years, and hearing it in this context is so wrong and yet… well, there's nothing to hide how it is affecting him. 

"Fuck. Yes, yes, yes…" He twists against the sheets, trying to hook Bro down with his leg. 

This is not how a king should behave. It's especially not how a king should behave around a demonic threat to his kingdom. But he can't help himself. He never wanted to be king anyway. He's missed him, missed him so much… 

"Let me see you," Dave tries, and shivers at the look on his brother's face. His eyes are alive now, teasing and intent. With a jolt, Dave realises just how dead they were before. "P-please…"

It has exactly the effect he wants. Bro complies, and as fabric slides away to reveal stretches of familiar skin, his heart begins to pound harder. He knows these freckles, that scar… 

Now bare, Bro settles back down with Dave, shockingly warm skin all over him. They've never done this, and Dave certainly never pictured them doing it in some strange tower of doom, but despite it all it's not awkward. It's them, in a way Dave only half remembered they could be. 

He kisses Bro, mind on the past, hands smoothing over his back, feeling all that warm muscled skin. As his lips catch just right and his fingers slide low, lower, he feels the hands on his hips heat up nearly unbearably, and Dave hisses. 

Bro goes to move back, but Dave grabs on tighter. "Please touch me." 

"You call that begging?" Bro says, and Dave tingles all over again as his wrists are pinned above his head by one large hand. He could probably wriggle out of it fairly easily, but Bro  _ wants  _ him like this. Wants  _ him _ . 

His dick is aching against his thigh. 

"Please touch my dick," he says, stronger this time, but Bro doesn't move. "Please… oh yes…"

But Bro's free hand doesn't wander lower than his navel—it pauses there to stroke the sensitive skin of his lower belly. 

"Please touch my dick," he repeats, and this time he really means it, but Bro only stares down with wicked hellfire in his eyes, stroking gently down his thigh and completely missing where he needs it the most. "Please…" 

His voice had cracked that time, and Bro leans down to lick his throat as though he can taste Dave's desperation. 

Dave's hips snap up as hot fingers finally close around him, his dick hardening embarrassingly quickly at the light touch. But that's all he gets. He tries pushing his hips up on purpose, but Bro simply moves with him. 

"I'm touching you ain't I," says his literal monster of a brother. The more things change, huh. 

"More…" Dave grits out, but Bro keeps ignoring him, tickling feather-light nothing touches up his length. It has his dick straining anyway, shamefully red. God, and he's sweating  _ again.  _

Bro simply quirks a brow. 

"Fuck! More, more, make me come, please…" Words burst out of him in a torrent, and for a moment Bro shifts off and leaves him altogether. But before he can sob his displeasure Bro is back on him, his hand now dizzyingly slick and wet on Dave's cock. His babbling jump starts again, and Bro begins to jack him hard, squeezing his head and pumping him all the way to the root of his cock. It's nearly too rough, but it's ripping intense pleasure from somewhere deep and unknown inside Dave. His mouth runs, curses and pleading and gasps, and Bro doesn't stop. 

Dave's orgam feels torn out of him, leaves him shaky and full of passion yet to burn. 

"Your turn," he says, and rolls Bro over before he can protest. Kisses his mouth, chin. Slides down to press a kiss over his heart. 

"You're a sap," Bro mumbles. 

"You're a fool," Dave retorts against Bro's stomach. "Give me what I want, and then make me leave? No, the king of fools is what you are. There's no end to what I want from you. You'll never be done."

"When did you become such a charlatan," Bro says. But his voice is strained, and his hands shake as he reaches down to hold Dave's hair, guides his mouth down to his cock. Dave goes gladly. 

Mouth full and mind heavy, he works Bro to a slow, steady peak. He can feel the motions begin to swell in Bro's hips under his hands, he can feel wetness begin to well as he pushes the plush head of Bro's cock through his lips. He feels like he could live in this moment forever, the world reduced to the basest sensation and sound, but before long Bro trembles, shudders, and releases, hands suddenly searing hot. 

Dave barely has time to lick his lips before Bro is sitting up and pulling away to roll off the bed entirely. Dave flops onto his back, mind going round and round like bird with one wing. 

Then Bro is back with a pitcher of water, which Dave grabs immediately. He takes big greedy gulps, feeling infinitely better. He rolls the empty pitcher away, and pulls Bro back down into the blankets. 

This time Bro lets him cuddle. 

"I missed you, asshole," Dave whispers into his skin. "Why did you leave me?" 

Bro pulls back and looks him in the eyes for a long time. Dave looks back. He can’t see anything in there. 

“All right,” Bro says at last. “I’ll show you."

Bro stands up, the blanket sliding to the floor in an obsidian puddle, and Dave cant keep his eyes off the way the firelight sticks to his skin. He's so gorgeous. Wait. 

"Show me what?" Dave stands up too, grabbing the blanket from the floor to preserve his modesty, and follows Bro through up one last short flight of stairs.

Dave finds himself in a dark room, with countless drapes hanging from the ceiling in long loops and folds. He follows Bro, weaving through the silken maze, heading towards a light that glows through the fabrics. 

In the centre of the room is a polished stone basin. It looks kind of like… this room looks kind of like… but it can't be...

Bro looks at him until he shuffles over close enough to peer inside. The basin contains a tiny baby, swaddled in blankets.

Dave can't think, just stares. When Bro puts a weirdly gentle hand on its forehead, it opens blood red eyes.

“Is he yours?”

"Good as. He's gonna end the world.” What the fuck. Dave flinches hard, hand twitching for his sword. Bro ignores him, just pushes a lock of ash white hair from its forehead. “Well, it'll end whether he lives or dies. Accordin' to the devil, it's been written as such since before the before. But the kids who end it have the chance to survive it. And if there's any chance of building something after this…”

”You mean he's gonna save the world. You should have led with that."

“You always were a glass half full guy.” There's a long silence. The baby is weirdly quiet, too. He seems content to blink up at Dave with those strange eyes. “He'll only survive if I train him.”

“Not sure this barren lava tower is super safe. What are you gonna do when he starts toddling?"

Bro looks at him blankly. 

"Oh lord," David groans, remembering exactly who he is talking to. This is a man who used to reduce his adult retainers to tears on a regular basis. "Who put you in charge of a baby? Oh right. the damned devil, apparently. You're really gonna have to tell me the whole story."

"Why."

He still looks kind of blank, like he had never even imagined he might need help with any of this. He's lucky he is hot, that is all Dave is going to say.

"Cause we will face this together. You could never handle even the oldest pages, I am not leaving this child alone with you. The fact that you even thought some dumbass hermit tower full of lava monsters would be the best place to…" He cuts himself off, rubs his eyes. "You're not getting rid of me now." Dave slides his arm around his brother, and rejoices when he leans nearly imperceptibly into him.


End file.
